September 28, 2010

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A former Justice Department official well acquainted with the agency's handling of environmental incidents said Tuesday he's deeply skeptical about a report that oil giant BP and the federal government are in negotiations about a fine the company would pay in connection with the Deepwater Horizon spill last April.

"Eventually there will be settlement talks involving a plea agreement to resolve criminal charges, a multi-billion-dollar criminal fine and, in all likelihood, a pre-filing consent decree to resolve civil charges … but it’s highly unlikely that those negotiations are already under way," said David Uhlmann, former head of the environmental crimes section at DOJ. "There’s still too much that the Justice Department needs to learn about what happened, too many witnesses to talk to, too many documents to review, too much physical evidence to examine."

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) said his staff was told by DOJ of ongoing talks regarding a civil fine. The Justice Departmenthad no official comment on the report. However, a senior DOJ official told POLITICO Tuesday that no such talks were underway. "Not true at all," the official said. (AP later reported a similar denial.)

Uhlmann, now a professor at the University of Michigan Law School, said there's no doubt BP and DOJ are in regular contact about the spill, but it's too early for substantive talks about the size of fine.

"There's invariably dialogue between Justice Department lawyers and the attorneys representing BP. I'm sure they have met to discuss how BP’s going to respond to document requests and eventually grand jury subpoenas. It's possible in whatever limited conversations have taken place [BP's liability] has already come up, ... but Justice isn't going to do anything until it's good and ready."

Uhlmann said he does think the process will move faster than in the typical environmental case and perhaps be resolved within months due to BP's desire to get the ugly episode behind it. "Ordinarily, this takes years. In this case, it could just be months, but I'd be surprised if it's now," he said.